Mine Health and Safety Academy

Beckley Post-Herald
August 18, 1976

Coal Miners Not Expendable, Kleppe Says At Dedication

By TONY BAZZIE
Staff Writer

"In a mine in America, everything else may be expendable - our miners are not," said U.S.
Department of the Interior Secretary Thomas S. Kleppe at the dedication ceremony Tuesday of
the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration's Mine Health and Safety Academy on the
Airport Road.

Speaking in the academy's gymnasium, the secretary of the Interior Department, which controls
MESA, said "the safety of miners is what the academy is all about," despite its $20.6 million
price tag.

"If supplying the energy needs of America is one of the greatest challenges of the future, then
where could America possibly invest its money more wisely than in the protection of the health
and safety of the men who will do so much to supply that energy? There is no finer investment,"
he told the hundreds of visitors.

Good mining is safe mining, Kleppe continued, and safe mining begins with education and
training for all connected with the mining industry.

"This academy will educate and train inspectors as its first function. But through the seminar
program, through the continuing education program, through all the other programs that will be
devised as the academy progresses, there will be an enormous spread of this education and
training throughout the mining industry," the secretary remarked.

Kleppe, who left the academy midway through the ceremony in order to fly to the Republican
National Convention in Kansas City, Kan., pointed out before leaving around 2:30 p.m. that in
less than two hours, the day shift in the mines in the Appalachian coal fields would be going
home, "tired, because mining is hard, physical labor."

"If we could take all those miners on a magic carpet here to see this academy today," he said, "we
would say to them: We have built this academy as a monument to you, because we care. Because
of it, and with God's help, you and other miners will go home to your families in the future. You
may be tired. But it is the determination of the American people that you will go home, that you
will be healthy, that you will be safe."

In his remarks at the dedication ceremony, the Interior Department secretary also paid tribute to
U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W. Va., for his efforts to have Congress appropriate money for the
new facility, and the Raleigh County Airport Authority and the Raleigh County Commission for
donating the 70-acre site for the facility.

Senator Byrd, who was the keynote speaker at the dedication, told the audience that coal has been
and continues to be the backbone of the West Virginia economy.

"Our coal deposits in American will meet our energy needs for several centuries," the senator
said. "It is obvious the future of coal is bright, but mining the coal requires the labor of men."

Mining, the Senate majority whip said, has always been a dangerous occupation. West Virginia's
history, he added, is filled with mining disasters.

"The men who work in the mines must be willing to live with the stark realities of life," said the
senator. "Thousands of miners are injured and scores lose their lives in this industry. This means
the deaths of fathers and husbands."

"It is for this reason," Byrd continued, "that I began some years ago to work for the establishment
of this mine health and safety academy through my position as chairman of the Subcommittee for
Interior Appropriations. This unique and magnificent facility is something that will not only help
save lives, but it will reassure the families of the men who work in the mines."

While the people of Beckley can take pride in the Academy, Byrd said, it will not only benefit
southern West Virginia, but the whole country and even the world. "Miners from all over the
world," said the senator, "will be coming to Beckley in an attempt to cut down on the injuries
and deaths that have so long tainted the miners' lives."

Also making brief remarks at the dedication was Robert E. Barrett, administrator of the Mine
Enforcement and Safety Administration. Said Barrett, before introducing special guest[s] (among
them United Mine Workers of America President Arnold Miller), "I would hope that someday
when a miner leaves for work, he can feel reasonably sure that he will be as safe as his neighbors.
The academy will be dedicated to that goal."

Rep. Ken Hechler, D-W. Va., who did not speak at the dedication but had remarks following the
event, said that "the dedication of this academy symbolized the determination of the nation that
in the coal mining industry the first priority must be placed on the health and safety of its most
precious resource - the coal miner."

Hechler said that at the ground breaking ceremony of the academy several years ago, it rained
"dogs and cats." But on Tuesday, "the sun was shining in a clear sky which portends a bright
future for this magnificent new facility."

Hechler continued, "Now that the Mine Health and Safety Academy is in operation, we must
concentrate on improving mine safety methods. Last week, at the Underground Coal Gasification
Symposium at the Energy Research Center in Morgantown, I stressed the importance of
developing synthetic natural gas from coal while in place, which will improve the safety record
in the coal mining industry."

"But above all," the congressman said, "there must be strict enforcement of the mine safety laws
and regulations, along with an expansion of the type of training afforded by the new Mine Health
and Safety Academy."

Also on the program as master of ceremonies was Dr. Michael G. Zabetakis, academy
superintendent, who presented Senator Byrd a plaque of appreciation at the end of the ceremony.
Zabetakis also informed the senator that "the heart of the academy - the classroom wing," has
been officially named the Robert C. Byrd Classroom Wing.

The new academy, which was constructed over a period of four years, consists of an
administration section, academic wing, dormitory wing, mining equipment shop, equipment
storage section and recreation section.